Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Dear Fellow Biologists,
I am a student at Swarthmore College, PA and am currently taking a MicoBio
seminar in which we are required to present a proposal which we put
together ourselves. I have chosen to work on tuberculosis (Mycobacterium
Tuberculosis) and to take a closer look at what possible alternatives to
using antibiotics would be. Currently, isoniazid, ethionamide, ethambutol,
pyrazidamide or a combination of any of these are being used to treat the
disease. Because of incorrect or incomplete usage of these drugs, however,
resistance is developing quite rapidly. Drug resistant strains of TB can
be found mostly in Africa and some parts of India.
My question to you is the following: Can you help me find some references
on the activation of Macrophages in which the Mycobacteria remain for an
extended period of time? If so, what is the name of the protein or factor
that does so and where does it map to? So far, I have been able to find
some info on IFN-gamma, but not on its gene location...if you know
something I don't, please drop me a short note over e-mail...thanks
Barry
bmook1 at cc.swarthmore.edu